Clash of Salamander and Storm
Despite their usual reputations of being places usually crawling with scientists, researchers, or whoever else decided that some 'groundbreaking discoveries' could occur within its boundaries, this certain set of ruins was surprisingly peaceful, at least for the time being. No sign of any other human habitation (save for that which occurred many, MANY years ago) was visible, and all that was left were the various overgrown buildings and the variety of seemingly random oak trees, flowers and clearings that dotted the landscape. A certain green-haired lad dropped from a half-overturned tower into the 'ground floor' of the ruins, a small paper in one of his hands, carefully scanning the environment. He was standing in something of a Colosseum, though it was every bit as overgrown as the rest of the ruins, with a decent bit of seating left over in the stands, and the entrances on either side were still there, if the one in the south had a large block in the way, hence the reason why the young man felt the need to take a more aerial approach. Unfortunately, the young man was alone, his travelling companions having decided that a more logical approach was to allow him ''to go to the mysterious tournament, while ''they took a small detour to the nearest town in order to stock up on their already scarce food supplies. Thankfully, however, travelling aimlessly around the world allowed one the luxury of shortcuts. The lad's ears suddenly twitched, and his nose took a sharp intake of air, as the scent of a newcomer reached him, and the faint sound of footsteps hit his ears. Smiling a bit wider now, he stuffed the paper that he held into one of his pockets, then immediately launched into some light battle preparations; stretching, practice punching the air, etc. Through one of the ruin hallways were the sounds of footsteps as they slowly got louder and louder with each step, eventually making their way out into the open as a tanned-man with pink hair looked around, staring upward as the sun beamed down on him, making him squint and rub his eyes to allow him to see as he looked down at the remains of an area. In the middle he saw a green-haired person, which made him think of the letter he recieved with instructions on where he was suppose to go, and who to expect when he arrived there. In his mind he thought this whole "tournament" that he had heard about through some people was nothing more than a crock, but thanks to his partner's history lesson, he figured fighting others like him would be the best chance at retrieving his old memories. "Hey Kid!" He said while he started walking down towards him. The 'kid' stopped his exercises immediatley, whipping around to face his opponent and raising a hand in greeting. "Yo!" he called out, "you here for the fighting thing?" "Amongst other things, yeah. I'm guessing you'll be my first opponent, fair bit of advice, I don't hold back when it comes to fighting" He said chuckiling when he finally arrived to the side of the ruins. "Awesome!" Knave said, leaping up and down like a 3-year old on Christmas morning, "I don't either..." Though, as soon as he said this, he quieted, becoming a bit solemn, "...though that usually means I get kicked out of a lot of places for some reason." The man chuckled a bit, his partner's stories of how he was before losing his memory made him feel like he was talking to his old self. "Name's Natsu, Natsu Dragneel." "I'm Knave Dhahaka!" Knave said, grinning and slamming two of his fists together, allowing a small bit of what appeared to be a fusion of wind and lightning to fly from between them, "want to get started?" Natsu smiled a bit as he cracked his hands, causing sparks of flames to shoot out with each crack as he jumped back a good few feet to allow himself room to do his magic. "Sure, good luck to you Knave" He said before taking a fighting stance. "The same!" Knave called back, crouching low, his muscles tensing, before lunging across the arena at an incredible speed, storm wrapping around his hand. "Storm Dragon's Turbulent Fist!" he called as he brought his fist forward, aiming for Natsu's head or neck area. The speed caught Natsu off guard, but when the punch made impact, he didn't get pushed back as he then lit his whole leg on fire and attempted to knee Knave right in the stomach. "Tch!" Knave cried, partially out of his frustration for having his attack blocked, and partly out of opening he had made. Acting as quickly as he could, he surrounded both his other arm and some of his stomach with storm, his arm flashing down, barely catching the blow. However, while the flame-based damage did not hit home, the sheer force of the kick did, and Knave was flung backwards from his opponent, skidding slightly on the ground while coming to a stop. "Heh, you're good!" Knave called, before taking a deep breath, "Storm Dragon's..." He then thrust his head forward, releasing a sudden, slightly tornado-shaped maelstrom of storm at his rosy-haired opponent, "ROAR!" Natsu's instincts kicked in the moment Knave sucked in air as he focused his magic energy into his throat, taking just one inhale of air before looked back at the blast coming towards him. "Fire Dragon's Roar!!!" The blast showed to be twice the size, wide-spread, and went towards Knave's with incredible speed and force as it showed to colide with Knave's. The two Roars surged against each other for a moment, before Natsu's finally broke through, flinging itself towards the marimo lad. Knave, upon seeing that his Roar had lost in the clash, slammed his foot into the ground, creating a large crater, and flinging himself into the air, avoiding the worst of the flame, while the rest licked at his shoes. With a clearer view of the Fire Dragon Slayer, Knave began spitting a variety of small bursts of storm out of his mouth, that, while they carried not much of the force and power of his regular roar, partially made up for it at least in number. The downside was, however, that Knave had put himself into a bit of a tricky situation, with manuevering options limited. Natsu saw what the young slayer had planned and knew he couldn't avoid all the roars even with his top speed, which meant he needed to take a few hits as he remembered the trick his mentors taught him, jumping upward towards Knave using solid eternano steps. Each step upward made him a target as he evaded most of the roars, but found himself getting hit in the stomach by one, but forcing himself through it before he propelled himself forward towards Knave as he covered himself with flames. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist" He pulled back his fist, condensing the flames as he aimed it right at Knave with the full might he had. Once again, Knave was unable to dodge, and simply threw up a small elemental cloak of storm in the hopes of stopping the attack. While it kept some of the damage away, it was not as effective as his previous block, and the punch knocked him out of the air, sending him crashing into one of the walls separating the stands from the battle arena. For several moments, only dust rose softly from where he had made impact, but several seconds later, storm spiked and exploded from the location! Knave stood up again, now sporting a few bruises, a faint glow around him. "Storm Drive," he said simply, "time for Round Two!" As he leaped back into the arena proper, his body seemed to blur, and then he vanished completely, replaced by a large number of afterimages, all of them flickering slightly at the edges. "Let's go!" they cried in unision, beginning to charge at Natsu. Natsu's sense of smell couldn't tell which of them was real or which was fake, but knew there was a real one out of all of them, and focused his flames to come downard onto his skin, and revealing what appears to be scales of red-flames covering most of his body in order to better defend against the chances of being attacked. "Fire Dragon Scales!" Natsu then went at his own high speeds, running towards Knave. Right as the afterimages reached Natsu, several, about 4 in fact, leaped into the air over him, allowing the others to plow harmlessly into him, vanishing almost right as the remaining 4 leaped into the air. The remaining afterimages began their descent, each one aiming a storm-surrounded kick at the former Fairy Tail member. Having an idea to find the real one, Natsu smiled as he began spinning to cause the fire that was around him to take in more oxygen, causing flames to spiral out as it was in a minature whirlwind that went upward towards the Knave and his afterimages. Almost immediatley, the other afterimages winked out of existance, and the real Knave surrounded his body with a massive amount of storm, the surrounding taking the brunt of the flame, though bits still flew in and strike Knave, causing the young Dragon Slayer to grit his teeth and forced him to bear it. Once Natsu finally came into sight, Knave immediately took another deep breath, and released another Storm Dragon's Roar right on top of his opponent! Due to the change in temperature that resulted from the roar, it broke the flames apart as Natsu could feel the sudden drop and attempted to jump out of the way, but barley made it as the force of the roar sent him flying right into one of the nearby pillars, and making him slam hard with it coming down on him as it knocked the wind out of him as he got out of it quickly to send one of his own roar back at Knave. Knave leaped out of the way as well, but was caught with the force of the roar slightly more harshly than Natsu had, sending him once more smashing into the side of the stands. However, this time he leaped up immediatley, opening his mouth once more. "Storm Dragon's Typhoon Wail!" he cried. Immediatley, a small orb of storm formed right in front of his mouth, as several storm tentacles exploded from it, lashing through the air and heading straight for Natsu, destroying anything in their path! Natsu focused his magic as the scales grew brighter, allowing him to colide with the incoming tentacles, taking some damage and dodging when necessary as he then sent out multiple roars of his own in an attempt to destroy them. The different roars collided violently several times, causing small explosions that ended up leaving pockmarks all around the arena, as well as filling it with smoke. Knave exploded from the smoke, aiming another storm-powered punch at Natsu. Natsu's managed to take the attack on a patch of his scales, which resulted in it being decreased but leaving a mark as he then went on the offensive and swung back with his Iron Fist. Knave, sensing the sudden giving of the scales, leaped away just in time to avoid the brunt of the Iron Fist, though he was still thrown back the force. Righting himself, he surrounded both hands with storm, then charged forward, launching dozens of punches in the hopes of taking off as many scales as he could. Recognizing that his scales couldn't endure forever, He quickly dispelled them and hardened his body as he charged with his fists engulfed in what appeared to be hotter flames than before due to their more bluish color, which Natsu did by altering his Eternano wavelength and went on the powerful offensive sending punch after punch along with Knave. The two exchanged blows for what seemed to them like an eterenity, blocking, deflecting, returning punches, only for said punches to be blocked or deflected. Finally, two of their blows collided, causing a small explosive shockwave that knocked the both of them back, about several feet apart each. Recovering, Knave charged at Natsu again, generating a massive amount of storm around himself, and simply charging, parts of the storm forming an tip around Knave's head, which was extended forward. "Storm Dragon's Tornado Ram!" Natsu focused as he managed to block it with some damage, but felt himself being pushed back as he summoned up his fire to add more strength, but got sent flying back. However, his instincts seemed to have tuned in faster than normal as his flames were able to be propelled from his feet, managing to slow down himself before completely stopping. He started to feel the bruises forming as Natsu was surprised that there were others that could do damage to him even if he didn't feel it. Knowing his, he decided to get in gear as he began channeling flames from his body into the middle of his palms, summoning up flames that condensed themselves into an orb that Natsu contained until it was so small it could fit in his hand. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Natsu sent it flying as it went at in incredible speed, almost like it was a bullet flying, aiming towards Knave as it got closer before it expanded to an even bigger size. The pure speed of the thing made it next to impossible to dodge by ordinary methods, leaving countering or blocking as the only options, and he had precious little time to counter. So, rather than attempt an attack he couldn't finish, Knave allowed storm to explode out of him, the sudden rush of storm meeting the orb of flame, causing both attacks to explode, and knocking Knave back with the shockwave (as he was the closest to the impact). However, the young Slayer recovered quickly, using his left hand to push himself into the air. He allowed his magical power to surge briefly. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art..." He quickly threw his hands behind him, as though gripping something, and storm appeared, twisting itself into the shape of a large scythe! "DEBILITATING STORM SCYTHE!" Knave twirled the massive storm scythe in his hands, then swung it with all his might, before letting go, allowing the blade to fly across the arena at Natsu. Natsu's surprise was short-lived as it managed to land a clean hit on him, cutting him up a bit even with his enhanced durability as it slammed him right into the wall, making him groan a bit as he brushed off the debris. "Phew, nice one, that even hurt a little bit but now it's time for me to show what I really got" He said cracking his knuckles and giving Knave his trademark smile before concentrating as the flames around him erupted along with what looked like electricity as it surged throughout his body, melding together to create an electric-flame unlike anything ever seen before. "Lightning Flame Dragon Mode!!" In one instant, Natsu disappeared in what appeared to be a bolt of lightning as he appeared right next to Knave, attempting to kick him. Knave reacted as quickly as he could, raising an arm in an attempted block. As the kick slammed into it, Knave was thrown across the arena, smashing into a nearby pillar, which toppled over under the force of the impact. Recovering, Knave leaped out of the creater he had made, then lunged at Natsu again, aiming a storm-enhanced punch directly at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. "Storm Dragon's Turbulent Fist!" Natsu brought up his defense as it hit him, sending him back but didn't push him too far as he then quickly drew in breath before focusing it into a powerful attack. "Lightining Flame Dragon's Roar!!!!" Releasing the pent-up air, the roar showed to be even bigger than his first inital roars as the energies merged together were that of Fire and Lightning, making it twice as large as it spread a big size, with jet-like speeds as it headed right towards Knave. "Crap!" Knave swore to himself, throwing his hands up and bringing up his now standard storm cloak, "gonna have to take it-!" The blow struck the marimo lad, knocking him off his feet and sending him smashing into the side of the arena with a massive explosion! Dust quickly filled the area between the two Dragon Slayers, as well as a hefty bit of silence. "Gotta admit..." Knave coughed, as he pulled himself out of the rubble, now covered in bruises and his shirt in tatters, "that flame of yours is getting annoying. Still, there's JUST enough to allow me to do it... Alright! I'll play your game! DRAGO OVERSTORM!" A small shockwave exploded around Knave as the sub-spell took effect. Knave surrounded his hands with storm once more, but the storm had... changed. It now seemed to be a lot rougher, as if it had the texture of a stormy sea. It also seemed to thrash around more, but at the same time, had a more calming feel, as if one was watching the stormy sea from a distance. "Storm Dragon's...." Knave began, the storm now focusing around his fingertips, him drawing his hand back, "TRUE CLAWS!" He swung his hand forward, releasing a large amount of lines of the changed storm at Natsu, the stands slicing cleanly through the few bits of rubble in between them as they continued their way towards the Flame Dragon Slayer. Natsu roared as his magic energy rose up to higher levels as he knew that he couldn't deflect this spell and taking it head on would mean even more damage done to him so he took the offensive. Drawing in much of his magic energy, his flames and lightning swirled and surged as he focused and took in a deep breath, spinning it around him with his arms, "Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Crimsion Lotus: Exploding LIghtning Blade!!!" The vortex it created was condensed and small, but the burst it released sent out an near-destructive shock-wave that shook the entire area as it aimed right for Knave's spell. The two attacks clashed, and Natsu's broke through the smaller strands of storm, hurtling towards Knave, "Not yet!" Knave yelled, his body glowing right as the technique hit him! The resulting explosion obscured the entire arena, before an explosive storm aura surged through the air, blowing any dust near Knave away. The young man was crouched slightly, allowing his aura to flare freely. In addition, his body was now covered in storm green scales, specifically covering the sides of his face and arms, though some dotted his chest. He looked up, facing Natsu. "You're pretty tough, you know!" the green-haired Dragon Slayer said, "I haven't gone all-out like this since we left Minstrel! So... let's both go all out! That way, whichever one of us loses won't have any regrets! You game?" Natsu showed to be slightly panting from the attack that he sent towards Knave, although it was a lot of magic energy, his endurance managed to keep him afloat. "You're quite an interesting kid, a powerful slayer too, and that's why I'm gonna show you something no one else has seen before, if you want full power, then it's time I show the world the powers of the Mad Dragon" With those words, Natsu's body suddenly flared black as scales appeared from the black energy that was emiting from him as it revealed to be flames, each of them burning away at the ground as if it was corrupting the very land itself. "I call it my "Blazing Dragon Mode", be ready Knave, because this can and will kill you if you're not committed" He said looking at Knave with dragon-like eyes as he started taking in a deep breath, which caused the air around to be sucked in a vaccum that was inside him mouth as the flames burned blacker and blacker. "Heh!" Knave chuckled, allowing his aura to explode further around him, "interesting! And don't worry! I wouldn't join this sort of battle if I wasn't committed!" Knave then flung both his arms up, all the storm in the area surrounding him and wrapping around the arms. The young Dragon Slayer then flung them down, as the massive amount of storm suddenly snapped into the shape of a truly massive, rapidly spinning drill! The creation itself was shaking violently, discharging random bolts of lightning and gusts of wind, though due to the stabilization that Knave's earlier use of Drago Overstorm had provided, it was not as unstable as it could have been. "Damn, this thing's annoying..." Knave muttered, before lifting his hands up, pointing it at Natsu. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art..." He leaped into the air, allowing the drill's momentum to take him. The massive construct launched through the air at truly incredible speeds, with a small discharge of storm at the end surrounding Knave, obscuring his body completely. The air itself screamed and tore as the technique flew rapidly towards it's target. "HEAVENWARD TEMPESTUOUS DRILL... PLUS!" Natsu secretly smiled before he released all the pent-up air he had stored in his lungs, releasing a hellish fire that scorched the very earth that it followed as it headed right towards Knave at an insane speed with it large in scale and destructive in power. "BLAZING MAD DRAGON'S ROAR!!!" The two techniques collided, causing a massive explosion that enveloped the entire arena. That wasn't enough, however, as the sheer force of the impact caused the area to shake to it's very foundations, parts of the stands collapsing in on themselves, filling the area with more rubble, As the dust began to clear minutes later, Knave lay on a small pile of rubble, his body covered with burn marks and bruises, absentmindedly staring up into the sky, slowly moving his fingers around, as if to check if they were still capable of movement. "Ah hell," the marimo lad said, "I lost, didn't I?" "Yeah, but look on the bright side, you're pretty much better looking at the moment than me" Natsu said as he walked towards him, bandages covering a large amount of his body as he helped Knave up, "Pretty powerful but scorches me, a Fire Dragon Slayer" He said as the two laughed. Next Chapter - Category:Zeon1 Category:Phantombeast Category:Dragon Slayer Royale